Happy
by jadenanne7
Summary: Tragedy strikes Danny's family...Will C.J. be there for him? Will they ever be happy?
1. Chapter 1

I do not own TWW! Please review!

C.J. was ecstatic. Four years is a long time to go without a day off, and she was finally getting one. Plans were made, and people were fore-warned that nothing but a national emergency would get her back into the office. C.J. was ecstatic.

The office was picked up, Carol was sent home, and C.J. was on her way out when Josh walked into her office.

"Hey, I know you've threatened death to the first person to interrupt the mini-vacation, but…"

"You figured you'd do it anyway?"

Josh sighed. "I just thought you'd like to know…"

C.J. cut him off with a wave. "You thought wrong. Whatever it is, I promise you I won't care about it until noon Sunday. At twelve p.m. Sunday, you can meet me at the front door of the White House and scream it into my ear. Until then, goodbye, mi amore."

C.J. walked toward the door, only to be accosted by a distraught-looking Donna.

"Are you on your way over?"

C.J. sighed. "I'm on my way home."

"But I thought you two were friends! Well, you seemed friendly with him… I mean… he gave you a fish. A fish! So I think he'd come over here for you if the situation were reversed."

C.J. felt a little tug on her insides. "Danny? Are we talking about Danny? Is there a situation?"

Donna looked at Josh accusingly. "You didn't tell her?"

Josh flushed. "I was trying."

Donna crossed her arms. "Try harder."

C.J. stared at Josh. "Tell me."

"Danny's parents were in a car accident. Hit head-on by a man texting on his cell phone. They're all dead, the man included. Danny was just told and he's not taking it very well."

"Not taking it very well?!" C.J. fumed. "Of course he's not taking it well. Is he still here? Please tell me he didn't try to go home…?"

"He's holed up in his office," Donna interjected. "He won't talk to anyone, but I think Katie took his keys."

"Remind me to thank Katie later." C.J. started toward the door.

"If there is anymore information let me know first. I'll be in Danny's office."

C.J. wasn't ecstatic anymore.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

C.J. braced herself against Danny's office door. She had run all the way there, but couldn't bring herself to knock. It had been years since her own mother's death, and the memory still hurt sometimes. If she allowed herself to linger too long on her mother's memory, pain came back as fresh as it had been the day she died. Yet, she still had her father –to some degree- and C.J. could not imagine losing both parents so quickly.

She knocked tentatively and called out, "Danny? Danny, hun, it's C.J."

Nothing.

"Can I come in?"

Still nothing.

"Danny, I'm coming in."

C.J. slowly opened the door. The lights were off, and she wondered for a moment if someone had taken him home.

"What's the point?"

C.J. focused her eyes as well as she could to a chair in the corner of the office. She could barely make out Danny's form in the darkness.

"Can I turn on this light?"

"No. Not until you tell me what the point is."

"The point is that I can't see you, and I like to see people's faces when I talk to them. It's why I'm not a phone person."

There was silence from the chair, and C.J. realized her mistake.

"Sorry, poor choice of words."

"Don't beat yourself up. It was a great choice of words. As of now, I'm not a big fan of phones either. But you never told me what the point was."

C.J. felt her way over to the chair behind Danny's desk.

"What point?"

"The point. It seems to me that all of this is pointless. Your friends make the laws to protect people, to keep them safe, set consequences for breaking those laws, and yet… it doesn't matter. People still rob 7-11s, people still shoot themselves up with whatever they can get their hands on, and people still drive while distracted. So I ask you again, what is the point?"

They sat in silence for a long time. Finally, C.J. sighed. "I don't know. I guess we hope that what we do will make a difference, even if it's only in a small way. If we can make someone's life better, if we can save someone's life… I wish it could have been your parents that we saved. You'll never know how sorry I am…"

There was a slight rustle from Danny's chair as he switched on a lamp. His usually grinning mouth was set into a line, and his eyes held none of the sparkle they usually held when he looked upon C.J. There were no more tears, however, no outpouring of grief. C.J. decided she would rather see tears than this unfeeling face.

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault. It happens, you know?"

"Danny…"

"They took my keys. Guess they thought I wasn't able to drive. Isn't that funny? They give a fifteen year old kid a license and tell him to go wild. No one warns him not to text and drive. No one warns him not to multi-task, they just throw him some keys and wish him luck. But me, they take my keys when I'm not looking. Like I don't know what I'm doing. Like I haven't been doing it most of my life. Like they don't trust me."

"I trust you. I trust you with my life. I trust that when my father finally goes, you'll think enough of me to take **my **keys from **me.**"

Danny looked up with mildly surprised eyes.

C.J. smiled slightly at him. "And I hope that when the time comes, you'll offer me a ride home."

The corner of Danny's mouth turned up.

"Was that an offer?"

C.J. smiled.

"Yeah."


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own TWW! Please read and review!

The car ride to Danny's apartment was silent. There was nothing C.J. could think of to say that would help the situation and she figured she would only make an ass out of herself trying. She pulled up to Danny's place and parked. They walked to his front door and she paused.

"Can you get in? Katie has your keys…"

"Hold on." Danny wiggled a brick on the bottom step and it popped loose.

"Nice place for a hide-a-key."

"I try. It's better than under the mat."

"Right."

Danny walked the steps toward C.J.

"You know you don't have to look out for me."

"Danny…"

"I'm just gonna sack out. I'm pretty drained. I'll call a cab in the morning and get my keys from Katie at work. In fact, let me unlock and put this key back or I never will."

C.J. watched Danny replace the key and a thought hit her.

"Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Work?"

Danny raised his eyebrows and nodded his head.

"Yeah… you know… that thing we do to make money. That thing you do every day, sometimes til two and three in the morning. By the way, I hear they are finally giving you the coveted day off. Congratulations."

"Um, thanks, but you don't need to be working tomorrow. You just lost both of your parents. This is your time to…"

"To what?" Danny interrupted. He leaned against the door and shoved his hands into his pockets. "To sit at home and dwell? To think about the last three emails that my Dad sent last week? The ones begging me for news, one word on how I was doing? The ones I never responded to because other things were more important? Because some guy who couldn't get to his stupid locker to get his stupid fucking cricket bat was more interesting? Or my mom? The phone messages on my machine reminding me that she loved me? All she wanted was a five minute call. Something. And I couldn't be bothered. I hate myself for it. And if I focus on that, I'll go crazy. So I need to focus on work and the guy with the cricket bat, and you need to get out of this freezing weather and go home, C.J."

"Are you sure you…"

"Home. Just go home."

C.J. sighed.

"Ok. I'll leave you to it. Just call me if you need anything, or if you want to talk."

Danny nodded slightly. C.J. hesitated for a moment, and then stepped towards him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him lightly. When he didn't respond, she turned and pressed her lips to his cheek. His forehead dipped to hers for a moment.

"Goodnight, C.J."

"Goodnight, Daniel."

C.J. started to walk away when he called to her.

"Hey C.J.?"

She turned to him once more.

"Enjoy your day off."

**TWWTWWTWWTWWTWWTWWTWWTWWTWWTWWTWWTWW**

There was nothing in C.J.'s fridge that interested her, noting on her television that interested her, and definitely nothing on her massive bookshelves that interested her. All C.J. could think about was Danny. She couldn't understand what was going on in his head. His parents were gone in an accident that was totally preventable and he was talking about work and acting like he was numb. C.J. didn't pretend to know Danny completely, but she knew he felt things, and he felt them deeply. The lengths that he went through just to get her attention proved that. If C.J. ever wondered if he was sincere in his affection for her, she thought about Gail. Gail proved that Danny was sweet and sensitive and that the way he was acting now was not normal. Her heart ached for him.

"I'll check on him first thing in the morning," C.J. murmured while pulling on her pajama pants and tank. "After he's had time to process all of this."

She climbed into her bed and closed her eyes, finding out fairly quickly that sleep was just not coming. Her mind kept drifting off to dark places…Danny and his parents… her own mother and father. Her father's mind had started to go not long after her mother passed. She had never felt more alone, and if it weren't for her brothers she never would have gotten through it. But who did Danny have? All of his family lived in Michigan, and she didn't know if she had any good friends.

"What am I doing?" C.J. sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Danny needs me and I am his friend, no matter how inappropriate it may be."

She pulled a cardigan over her night clothes and headed out the door to Danny's apartment. Stopping at his front step, C.J. removed his spare key from its clever hiding spot. It was too cold to stand outside in next to nothing and wait for him to answer the door, if he answered at all. Letting herself into the apartment, she called out to him softly.

"Danny?"

Nothing. She walked through the living room and down the hall to what could only be the bedroom, stopping short when she heard something coming from the other side of the door. Sobbing. This, she could deal with. Opening the door, she could make out Danny's form on the bed. He faced the window, shaking.

'I'm here to talk,' C.J. thought, frozen in her tracks. 'He needs to talk… screw it. I'd want to be held.'

She crossed the room and climbed in next to him on top of the covers. Snuggling against his back, she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. He froze.

"C.J.?"

"If you want me to go I will, but I had to check on you."

Danny didn't say anything, and C.J. felt foolish. She pulled back from him and started to rise from the bed.

"I'll call you in the morning."

He grabbed her hand and held her close.

"I didn't really want to be alone. Thanks for coming back."

She wished she could see his face but settled for stroking his curls. She really did love his hair. It was always wild but always silky and it always smelled good.

"My mom and all of my sisters love my hair. Not to brag or anything, but all women love the red curly thing."

C.J. smiled and rested her cheek against the hair he was so proud of, running her fingers through it.

"I planned on coming over and being all helpful and wise, and all I can do is play with your hair."

Danny snuggled back into her and sighed.

"Well before you got here all I could do was cry. You've always been a good distraction. And having my hair played with never fails to put me to sleep. Keep it up, honey."

"Anything to help a friend. Just sleep. You need it."

Danny threaded her fingers through his.

"And you'll stay?"

He sounded so small.

"Of course. Sleep, Danny."

And he slept.


End file.
